He claimed that the Bangkok demonstrations have no impacted tourism levels because police had assured foreign governments that tourists would be safe.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand said earlier last month, however, that Russian tourist arrivals had dropped 20 percent and that South Korean and Chinese tourists had “disappeared” from the kingdom in the face of the political upheaval.

This article was published in the Pattaya Mail newspaper on Friday January 10, 2014 (Vol. XXII No. 2).